This invention relates to hangers for clothing and more particularly to hangers for garments, such as women's dresses and the like, but not limited thereto. The conventional way for displaying for sale and/or transporting said garments is by supporting them on racks, some of which have rollers, some are stationary, as in stores, some are circular and others rectangular. A rack often holds as many as one-hundred garments. At the manufacturing level, these garments may be all of one size and style and thus capable of being hung on conventional, non-adjustable hangers, also of one size. However, at the retail level, rarely, if ever, are one-hundred of the same size and style garments displayed on one rack. Frequently, a few of the same style are on racks and may differ merely in size. In better shops, however, garments, such as dresses, of totally different sizes, styles and colors are displayed on the same rack or are frequently stored outside of the retail selling area and brought to the customer one by one.
Where dresses of different styles or sizes are displayed on the same rack, be it circular or linear, they are hung vertically, being supported on the arms of hangers. However, a dress having relatively wide shoulders can easily fall off a hanger. Furthermore, one with a wide neck, and perhaps sleeves, can virtually obscure the next adjacent garment which may be sleeveless and supported by spaghetti straps. This is because a wider garment would extend outwardly further than a narrower or slimmer one on the same size hanger, thus obscuring the second or narrower garment.
It is one of the objectives of this invention to produce a hanger for garments which is of a single overall width but which can accommodate garments of different widths and with differing necklines.
Another objective of this invention is to produce a uniform hanger for such garments which is readily adjustable for different sizes of garments such that if a garment of one style is sold from the hanger, another of a completely different style can replace it.
The prior art is replete with adjustable hangers wherein the arms are extendable inwardly and outwardly to adjust for varying sizes of garments, but these hangers compound the problem of garment visibility when one supporting a relatively wide garment, e.g., one with wide shoulders, lies in front of one which is narrower. Furthermore, such hangers do not necessarily address the problem of garments slipping or falling off. Examples of such adjustable hangers are, as follows: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,717,053, 4,905,877, and 5,397,038.
Yet another objective of this invention is to produce a hanger for garments which is of uniform size end to end but which can accommodate garments of varying sizes and shapes.
Yet another problem exists with dresses with very wide, scooped necklines and dresses of large sizes, e.g., sizes 20 and up. If such a dress, having a wide neckline and, perhaps, sleeves, is hung on a conventional hanger, the upper central portion or bodice of the dress would become crumpled if the dress had to be pushed to the center of the hanger in order to be hung. This may be partially alleviated by the so-called hidden hanging straps provided on some dresses, but the problem of the garment becoming crumpled is still not necessarily avoided.
Not the least of the problems relative to garments such as dresses and the like is the problem of the garment becoming soiled or wrinkled or damaged by either falling off the hanger or being inadvertently knocked off the hanger by a customer or salesperson. The problem has been addressed by putting indentations or other holding interstices on the top of conventional hangers, which is primarily restricted to garments that have hanging straps, either wearable spaghetti straps or the so-called hidden straps.
It is to these problems that this invention is directed.